Country context

The English, Welsh, Scots and Irish have historically been regarded as the four major ethnic groups in the UK. However, the UK has always been a country of migration, and the increase in the size and variety of different ethnic groups since the late 1940s, added to the constant influx of migrant labour from EU and non-EU states (in particular the states of the British Commonwealth), has made the UK a multicultural state. Recent data that has been issued from the 2001 National Census showed that there were 4.6 million people from ethnic minorities (i.e. not English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish) in the UK in 2001, making up 7.9% of the total population.

This diversity has lead to frequent acknowledgements by the media, politicians and by public officials that the UK is a multi-faith and multi-ethnic society, and the UK has been committed to a formal policy of integration and equal rights without cultural assimilation since the 1970s. All the major political parties share this general commitment: only the relatively small and far-right British National Party contests this consensus. Nevertheless, racism, xenophobia and prejudice against particular religious groups (especially Muslims) remain a real problem within the UK.

Also, certain ethnic minorities continue to suffer from high rates of unemployment, social exclusion and poverty, including the native Traveller communities. Media campaigns against asylum-seekers and Travellers has contributed to greater hostility towards these particular groups. The events of 11 September 2001 and the London suicide bombings in July 2005 have had a similar impact upon British Muslim community: the suicide bombings have also led to a prominent national debate upon the need for unifying common ‘British’ values, as a way of achieving greater social cohesion without demanding assimilation.

Some prejudice also exists against disabled persons and gay/ lesbian/ bi-sexual/ transgendered people and age discrimination is not unknown.

However, in recent years, there has been much wider social acceptance of the rights of gay men and women to full equality across the political and media spectrum, and the UK has introduced comprehensive civil partnership legislation that permits same-sex couples to register their partnership and obtain equivalent legal rights as those available to opposite-sex married couples. In Northern Ireland the ongoing tensions between the Unionist/Protestant majority and Nationalist/Catholic minority continue to generate sectarian division, which can also arise in Scotland.

The UK traditionally permitted very limited scope in law for the use of preferential treatment for disadvantaged groups, but since 2000 a series of positive duties have been imposed upon public authorities to promote equality of opportunity on the grounds of race/ethnicity, disability and gender, while a similar duty in Northern Ireland extends across all of the six equality grounds. Positive action strategies have been adopted at national, regional and local level across the various equality grounds and private employers are also subject to monitoring requirements and obligations to take action to remedy under- representation of either of the two main communities (Catholic and Protestant) in Northern Ireland. There is extensive consultation by central, regional and local government bodies with NGOs, social partners and local communities on equality issues: sometimes, this is done in an ad hoc manner, sometimes in a more systematic manner involving the extensive use of regulatory impact assessment and other policy and consultation tools (especially in Northern Ireland).

The Equality Act 2010, which came into force in October 2010, made a number of important changes to equality/ discrimination law in GB. In particular, and in addition to codifying and clarifying the existing law, it significantly extended the ability of employers and others to adopt positive action measures to promote equality, and from April 2011 imposes a single cross-ground general equality duty on all GB public authorities. Consultations are proceeding in Northern Ireland on the possibility of a single equality act for the separate Northern Irish legislation as well.